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Big Congrats to Bill (fishquake) on winning August Photo Contest - Theme was Parents with Fry!!! Check It Out!!

Re: Non Discus related but, I am a Grandma!!!

He is absolutely adorable Jacklyn. He does look just like his dad. I spent my summers on a ranch in Wyoming for years when I was a kid and I always got to bottle feed the calves that didn't have a mama. I fell in love with them.

Also- people who know how fish crazy I am just call me interesting. People who get up at 4 am to water fish, build houses around a fish room and have grandcalves (spell check did not like that word) are interesting!

Re: Non Discus related but, I am a Grandma!!!

Well this week has been a deflation and a rollercoaster of emotions and sadness coupled with anxiety. On Tuesday evening our second shorthorn cow began going into labor. We cancelled our valentines reservations, ate sandwiches down at the barn and stayed with her through the night, literally I never went to sleep, she was struggling to get the calf out. At 4am we decided to gate the momma and pull the calf out ourselves, it was dead. what a mess of mixed emotions, a female calf, solid black from the angus in the father, with the brindle and white on her belly from the shorthorn in the momma, exactly what my husband was trying to breed, and a female. for several minutes we stood there not saying a word, the momma calf never even acknowledged the dead calf, she knew it was dead and had known for some time obviously, she began eating her breakfast without a hitch. my husband and I covered the body with a tarp and put it in an area no one could get to it and went to work, saddened and deflated.

next was to figure out what to do with the momma, do we try and find an orphaned calf in the area to put on her, or do we risk letting her milk dry up on its own possibly lending mastitis and intervention with antibiotics?? this was a calf that had adopted an orphaned calf 2 years ago so we got a Holstein steer 1 week old from a local dairy farm and put it with her. There is a widely accepted method known as grafting a calf that helps to get a momma cow to accept a calf that is not there. its a method that you can google, but do not google image it unless you are ready for a shock. but we did this, then we introduced the calf to the momma through a gate at first, while we took the dead calf and buried it in the woods in a hole that I had gotten off work early Wednesday to go home and dig by hand.

since then, we've been assisting the new calf nurse 3 times a day, 5am, 5:30 pm and 11pm. we have to restrain the mom and occupy her with treats and grain in order for her to let it nurse but last night she started communicating with the calf quite a bit, and she let it nurse for quite a long time after we had opened the head gate last night. she wants to accept him but then as soon as he goes to nurse she pushes him away, but then she will turn her body so that her udders are right in front of his little nose, like she is playing hard to get or something. we're hopeful, but we're giving it til sunday then we will consider it a rejection and will let the momma back out to pasture with the herd and hope her milk will dry up on its own.

Its been a week of sleep deprivation, for example I went home from work yesterday and immediately changed into my cattle clothes, helped trap and gate the momma to let the calf nurse for an hour, then fixed us dinner, did a water change and went to bed around 830, to get up at 11pm and go nurse the calf again until about 12:15am, then go back to sleep and get up at 445am to go do it again before work. its supposed to be like 67 here tomorrow and sunny outside, my opinion of ideal weather, and I will probably spend most of the day asleep.

so we still have 2 possibly 3 cows left to calf, all of which are first time heifers. the good and somewhat exciting news is I reached inside the uterus of a birthing cow and it made me realize I missed my calling as a large animal vet. i really enjoyed helping pull that calf, even though the outcome was terrible, some times these things happen is what they say. doesn't make it easier. this post seems to be a long stretch of bad grammar and run on sentences, i think maybe getting it out has been more therapeutic than any response it may get.

just thought i would update everyone, its why i haven't been to active on the forum this week.

Re: Non Discus related but, I am a Grandma!!!

Thanks for sharing Jacklyn, and sorry for the outcome with the calf. Hope everything works out with the grafting. Having no experience here, is it dangerous or risky to let the milk dry on its own? You may have said it but I didn't quite understand.

Re: Non Discus related but, I am a Grandma!!!

Originally Posted by RogueDiscus

Thanks for sharing Jacklyn, and sorry for the outcome with the calf. Hope everything works out with the grafting. Having no experience here, is it dangerous or risky to let the milk dry on its own? You may have said it but I didn't quite understand.

Its a debatable topic, some say you should put another cow on her, otherwise the milk that has already filled her udders can cause swelling and infection (mastitis) not to mention its very painful for them if not milked or nursed out. Others say she will dry up on her own within a month and will be fine. I think its much more of a danger for dairy cows as they are genetically engineered by the creator to be milk machines, but for beef cows its debatably optional. But there is some research that says if a cow loses a calf and her milk is left to dry up on its own, then she will likely face issues with milk production for future calving seasons.

over the past week, i have done more research on cows than fish, and that is saying a lot. a whole whole lot.

Re: Non Discus related but, I am a Grandma!!!

Jackyln, not much I can say here except I am sorry to hear things have not gone well and you lost a calf. Sounds like it would have been a special one. Theres definetly a need for passion in this venture of yours....lots of hard work there...but you and your husband are doing something very cool. I hope things go more smoothly here on.
Al

Re: Non Discus related but, I am a Grandma!!!

good news here. after 4 days of forcing the mother to nurse the orphan calf, she has accepted it. she is nursing and cleaning it all on her own now. Yesterday we let them back out to pasture with the rest of the herd and aside from Leroy being terrified of the calf that looks so different, things went really well. this morning the momma had not abandoned the Holstein calf over night and it was nursing on its own out in the pasture when I left for work. none of the cows seem interested in sniffing over the spot where we buried the other calf so that is good and they have moved on. new calf's name is chuck.
first picture: the way we had to force the momma to nurse 3 times a day for four dayschuck 1.jpg

second picture: momma nursing the calf on her own for the first time ever, 6 something or other am on Saturday morningchuck 2.jpg

an updated picture of Leroy, 3 weeks old today, the black splotch on his nose is spreading, like his whole nose may end up black soon (a good thing)leroy3.jpgleroy4.jpg

Re: Non Discus related but, I am a Grandma!!!

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Re: Non Discus related but, I am a Grandma!!!

Another calf born Saturday morning, another male but a really good looking one, and great coloration!!! I watched the whole process from afar with binoculars so to not stress the momma. It took her only 20 minutes from the first sign of labor to have the whole calf on the ground and up licking him. This is a first time heifer and so we have her and her calf locked up in a big corral for a couple days to make sure she is getting the hang of being a momma before releasing them to the pasture with the rest of the herd. So far everything is going well and we have had to do nothing but monitor. We plan to let them out with the rest of the herd tomorrow as long as everything continues to go well. No name yet for this bull calf, he will possibly get to keep his manhood since he is really good looking and could possibly make a great herd bull one day, idk yet though that will be my husband's decision. male#2.jpgmale#2 b.jpg

Re: Non Discus related but, I am a Grandma!!!

Just an update here. Our 2017 calving season is over. We have 3 calves total after the one died. so three out of 4 isn't that bad. Here are some updated pictures as the calves grow. We have two boys (walter and Leroy) and one girl (rebel) They are the best of friends. We ended up banding both the males. And the female is the feistiest one of them all, hence her name. leroy meets walter 1.jpg (first time Leroy meeting walter)leroy & walter 3-17-2017 a.jpg (face off)leroy & walter 3-17-2017 b.jpg (mom keeps a watchful eye in the background)leroy montage.jpg (Leroy montage, he is getting brave)

Re: Non Discus related but, I am a Grandma!!!

and now, Mr hot rod, who arrived Sunday for his second year. This year he has 8 girlfriends to impregnate. hot rod 2017.jpg

This will likely be our last year with this bull. We may end up keeping Rebel (his daughter) which means we wouldn't be able to use him for breeding anymore. But all that is unknown as of now, we have to watch and see how she grows.